Memories of Little Green Men and Sardines (6/8-17, 2010) **FINAL UPDATE 2-25-2011**

[ChildAtHeart82]

I'm glad your son is feeling better! Congrats on D23 membership!

 

[photographymom517]

GREAT NEWS GUYS!!!!

So, I followed your advice (brookelizabeth & stephielela) and went over to NikkiLovesWDW!'s TR...I actually read the entire thing yesterday while my son was sick! He was laying beside me watching DVD's & napping, so I caught up on my subscriptions & read Nikki's report!

She posted this for me..."Ok, so you already have your pics on Shutterfly? It's so easy! Once you have the pic up, just right click it and go to "copy image location." Then in your post, pull up the image icon and hit "paste." In case you don't know what I mean by "image icon" it's at the top of the post box in the same row as bold, italics, etc. It's the one that looks like a mountain with a sun."

I am so thankful for her instructions, this will make my life soooo much easier on DIS! All of my photos are already on Shutterfly (but NOT on Photobucket). Plus, I have tons and tons of pics on Shutterfly & keep adding to it! Photobucket limits the number of photos you can have on their site (which is the main reason I don't use it much!)

I think alot of us are in the same situation & being able to post through Shutterfly will make things easier & quicker!!!

Well, I tried it and tried it & I kept getting that same little stupid box with the red "X" in it...grrr!!!

So, I finally figured it out. Whenever I went into Shutterfly, my first problem was that it wouldn't let me see just one image (it wanted me to look at my entire album & check a box if I wanted to edit the photo). Umm...this was my stupidity because all you have to do is double-click the photo & it will bring up one at a time! OOPS!!!

So, the first step is to double-click the photo. You only want to have one image on your screen.

Next, right click your photo. Nikki said it will say "copy image location" but my computer doesn't do that. I had to right-click the photo & go into "Properties" then about half-way down, it says "Address (URL)" and you click this entire thing.

(the first time that my picture wouldn't come up on DIS was because I didn't have the "entire" URL, I only had part of it...so make sure you highlight the entire URL in the Properties box!)

After that, hit "copy" and go into DIS as usual & post the image through the little box in the post (the one that says "Insert Image").

And it worked!!! I am excited because now I can definitely have at least part of an update done asap! Yippee!!!!

(If you want to post pics through Shutterfly & can't get it to work, just ask me because I tried a few times before I got it to work!)

​

 

[photographymom517]

I'm glad your son is feeling better! Congrats on D23 membership!

Thank you!!! I am glad he's feeling better too! I was so worried yesterday!

And I am so excited about the D23 membership!!!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Thanks for figuring out how to post pics from Shutterfly. That will make posting pics for my PTR and TR so much easier! I look forward to seeing even more pics from you now!

 

[photographymom517]

Thanks for figuring out how to post pics from Shutterfly. That will make posting pics for my PTR and TR so much easier! I look forward to seeing even more pics from you now!

I know, this will make things soooo much easier now! Don't thank me, thank Nikki! If she wouldn't have explained it to me, I'd still be frustrated trying to figure it out! It really is super easy once you post through Shutterfly once.

I stayed up late last night writing my Epcot update, so I'm going to post it right now! I promised by Friday & for once, I actually kept my promise! I have tons of pictures from this day!!!

 

[photographymom517]

We decided to just eat breakfast at Epcot, so we got ready & left CBR at 9:04am. It took approximately 10 minutes to stop at the other villages to pick up guests & then we left CBR for Epcot (at 9:14am). We arrived at 9:25am and got through the gates fairly quickly! (I think this was the quickest day to get through the gates out of the entire trip!) We walked in & took a few pictures of the front of the park. As much as we love Epcot, I haven’t ever really taken many photos right when you walk into the park. This time, I made sure to.

I never even noticed this fountain…not sure why! (How on earth did I ever miss this???)

We walked past Spaceship Earth and noticed…there was NO line! I didn’t remember it from past trips & stopped to ask the CM if he thought our son would be afraid. I can’t remember why I asked but I think there was a sign that said it was dark or scary or something like that??? The CM was very nice & explained most of the ride to me so I would know what to expect. I told him that our son had been afraid of pretty much everything so far & I didn’t want other guests to have to listen to him scream the entire ride! He said we would get into separate vehicles on the ride so that shouldn’t be a problem. It was basically a walk-on!!! So nice (especially after we walked by SE a few hours later…and the line was soooo long & I think it said 150 minutes!)

At first, our son was afraid (he’s afraid of the dark, we already knew this) but as the ride went on, he liked watching the screen & listening to the man talk. I took lots of pictures of “our future.” Unfortunately I didn’t position my son correctly beside me when they were taking the picture so he wasn’t even in it (but I can see that the top of his little head is under my chin!) After we started answering the questions, I remembered riding this back in 1998.

This was the part where he screamed…its not a good photo, but I just wanted to post it so you could understand where we were while he was upset. We were riding up to the top & the entire time, its dark with only stars for light (oh and by the way, the guy in front of us kept making comments & I told him to shut up once!)

 

[photographymom517]

I don’t want to ruin the ride for anyone, but I took photos of each of the questions so I actually have them all (except maybe 2 of them that are just too blurry to read!)

The first question was “What are you most interested in? Home, Work, Health, Leasure” and I think we answered Home.

The next question was “Where would you like to work in the future? In the Country or In the City” and we answered Country

“What is your ideal work environment? The solitude of home or the Energy of the office” and we answered “solitude of home” (my husband answered…I wanted to put energy of the office…but we are different in this way so of course we’d answer differently!)

“Where do you get your best ideas? Thinking by Myself or Group Brainstorming” and we put “thinking by myself”

“What’s in your bag? Everything I might want or Only what I need” and we answered “only what I need” and we both agreed on this answer.

“Which describes you best? I work to live or I live to work”…we almost didn’t answer this one because we couldn’t decide. I insisted that my husband is the type who “Lives to Work” but he says he “works to Live” so we ended up choosing his answer (I don’t know why I always give in…)

“How do you want to travel in the future? A car that drives itself or a Hover train” and I don’t remember our answer. I think I wanted to put the Hover train because our son loves things like that, but I think we put a car that drives itself. I don’t remember. This might have been the answer where our son hit the screen before we could make up our minds!

Then it does this…

I took a picture of each & every screen & most of them turned out. There were so many, I won’t bore you with all of them, but it’s a very cute part of the ride!

My husband didn’t agree with me (haha) but I thought this picture was hilarious! See, he’s a welder so this reminded me of his welding hood. He didn’t see the humor in it!

Loved this one & wish I could have board meetings from the beach! How fun would that be?!?

First it showed us driving our car and then surfing (but neither of those pictures turned out at all) then it showed this which I thought was hilarious! I do online sales but don’t make nearly enough to have it be my full-time job. Its nice to have the extra money so I can stay home with our son, but we always talk about how we could expand it further so we could vacation more & work from the beach! This photo fits that perfectly!

Here we are on our surf boards! (this was the picture at the end when you go out into the bigger room after the ride & look for your picture on the screen!)

 

[photographymom517]

My favorite palm trees at Epcot.

After this, we decided to look for a QS restaurant so we could eat breakfast. We were eating lunch at Coral Reef so we didn’t want to pay OOP for another meal today. We ended up finding “The Land” pavilion, which we didn’t go in last trip. I have no idea why. (I can’t believe how much we missed last trip!)

We parked the stroller & went down the stairs to Sunshine Seasons. We looked at the breakfast menu to decide what we wanted. We decided that I would order the meals & wait/pay for them while my DH and DS found a table. The park was getting crowded at this point & we wanted to find a table.

This was my first huge confusion with the dining plan! I still don’t completely understand it. I ordered myself a Kid’s French Toast platter with sausage links. I got a child’s orange juice for myself because I never drink as much as my son does. I figured I’d save the big drink for him. I ordered my DH and DS both the Breakfast Platter which included bacon, eggs, sausage and a biscuit. I got them each a chocolate milk to drink. I also got an Asian Chocolate Cake for myself and a Strawberry Shortcake for my husband. When I got up to the counter to pay, the CM (who was extremely patient with me!) explained that I didn’t get a dessert with breakfast, I got 2 drinks. So, I went back and got a Strawberry Kiwi drink (our son had really liked it when we got it at OPR the other evening). I told the CM I would just use snack credits for the desserts & that I still wanted them. She told me that I still didn’t have enough drinks & I needed 2 more. So I went back and got another orange juice and another Strawberry Kiwi drink. I had a total of 6 drinks & I guess it should be obvious to me, but to this day, I don’t get it. I guess with breakfast each meal comes with 2 drinks and no dessert…its simple to understand but it still confuses me for some reason (and I’m really not dumb, I promise you! LOL) I paid for our food at 10:33am, the dessert cost $7.18 and the meals cost $29.14

Here’s the menu if you have a magnifying glass! Lol

My dessert…yum!!!

I was actually amazed that even though the pavilion was packed full of people, barely anyone was sitting down in the one area. We basically were sitting near maybe 7 other families (for anyone who hasn’t been to Sunshine Seasons, the seating area is divided into 2 different places & it is fairly large).

Picture to show you the lack of crowds at the seating area.

It was at this point I realized we were right beside Soarin and THAT’S where everyone was going!!! By the time we were done with our meal, we couldn’t even get through the people in line. They were wrapped clear around the inside of the pavilion & were all the way down the center of Sunshine Seasons. I didn’t even look at the wait time, but I’d estimate it over 100 minutes. It was the most insane thing I’ve ever seen at Disney!

People were pushing each other up & down the stairs, people were pushing into the line, people were getting mad because they were trying to get through with food trays (at Sunshine Seasons) and had to go through the line of Soarin. I thought this was a bad sign…if people are already in bad moods at 10:30am, what will they be like this evening at 9pm??? I didn’t let it get to me since we couldn’t ride Soarin due to the height requirement.

 

[photographymom517]

We ended up going to Living with the Land which turned out to be one of our very favorite rides of the entire trip!!! Neither of us knew what it was, but we liked the colorful painting all over the wall so we went to see what it was!

They weren’t giving out Fast Passes at all for Living with the Land yet (can you see the sign in the background of the photo above?) I think the wait line said 10 minutes, but the line moved really quickly & it was basically a walk-on. (I did notice when we were done with the ride, the wait time said 60 minutes and the line was back towards Sunshine Seasons but not nearly as bad as the line for Soarin!)

We really, really loved Living with the Land! What a neat ride! It was so special for us because this was the first part of the trip where our son actually REALLY seemed to enjoy himself. He saw the part of the ride with the farm house, tractor, chickens, and the dog sitting on the porch. He had cried up to this point on & off, but as soon as he saw this scene, he quit crying & pointed at the dog & said “puppy” “house” and then he smiled & kept saying “puppy” over and over again. It really made me smile to see him recognize something from back home!

This is the scene, but the picture turned out horrible. Anyone have a better one that I could use for my scrapbook? I’d really appreciate it!

Where we live, there are tons of farms & whenever we go into town, we see tractors plowing their fields. Our son also really loves animals! It made it even better because I heard the 2 ladies sitting behind us say “oh, look how sweet! He’s so happy now!” That really made my day. I thought it was nice for 2 complete strangers to be so glad that our son quit crying…and unlike the other guests we had encountered the previous days, they were glad he quit crying for HIM (instead of being happy for themselves & their hearing like the other people! LOL)

Here are more pictures from the ride (I even found a Hidden Mickey which I was super excited about. I took my Hidden Mickey book on the plane but never got the chance to look at it.)

I loved how you could see the beautiful clear, blue sky out of the top of Spaceship Earth!

Of course, this was our favorite! My son and I go outside & pick tomatoes out of our garden back home & eat them whole! Yum!

After we left the Land pavilion, we were trying to figure out what to do next. We didn’t want to go too far away from The Seas pavilion because we had ressies at Coral Reef for 1:15pm. When we left The Land, it was close to 11:15am. We didn’t want to start walking around World Showcase until after lunch, so we decided to go to the other side of Future World.

We went to Figment next. I never rode that before & I really enjoyed it (it seemed really short though). Our son laughed & seemed to enjoy it a lot. He liked the different smells & really liked Figment. I loved the end of the ride where Figment’s house is upside down. I think its really cute & wish I had pictures of it. Does anyone have any I could see???

Next we went into the Imageworks section. I thought it was really neat, but it was so crowded. We barely got to see anything there but we did finally get to email a picture back home! I have it saved in my Kodak Gallery online but not on my computer so I’ll post it later.

We then went into the gift shop & I bought a Holiday Vinylmation and a few postcards (which I never did end up writing out or mailing!) I saw a camera strap and an album that I really wanted, but I didn’t want to carry too many bags into Coral Reef with us & didn’t want to leave them in the stroller. I decided to wait until later (and never did end up purchasing either). I seriously need to start taking pictures inside the gift shops, after all, they are one of my favorite places!

We kept walking & watched the fountains for awhile. Our son loved them & we wanted to stand there longer & watch, but the humidity was insane!

We decided to find somewhere to sit for awhile before lunch, so we went into the Innoventions pavilion. I was in search of the Disney Visa photo area, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Obviously I should’ve asked a CM but I just figured I’d find it later since the photos were taken between 1:30-4:30pm. At this point, it was close to noon. We walked around & let our son look at the different things. He didn’t want to get out of his stroller, but he would watch the other kids run around. We found a bench & sat down for about 15-20 minutes.

You can see part of the design that I ironed onto our son’s shirt here. It was the Nemo Mickey head with his name on the left ear. It turned out really cute & I put his name & the Nemo characters on the back (I’ll post a pic of the back in my next post).

 

[photographymom517]

This is as close as I got to Chip & Dale. I love them but have never gotten my picture taken with them (next trip I’m doing Garden Grill as a character meal so that will change!)

As you can see, he took his shoes off again! He loves shoes but he also loves taking them off a million times a day!

We decided to start walking around again and we found more fountains. These were the ones the kids all run through, but our son just sat down beside them. He didn’t want to get wet for some reason. If you see how he acts at home, this would really shock you! On his 2nd birthday, he stood outside in the rain & ran around for over 30 minutes & refused to come in the house. He loves to get dirty & is constantly playing in puddles, water, mud, sand, you name it!

This is the back view of his shirt. I got all of my designs from the DISsign boards but I don’t remember who I got each design from. I have it written down somewhere in my notes. Most of them came from Millie but I did get some from others.

We let him sit & watch the other kids play in the fountains for a little while & then started walking back towards Coral Reef. We arrived there at 12:45pm and went inside. I told them we had a ressie and we were immediately taken to our table! (Did I mention yet that I love reservations & the dining plan?!?)

We were seated up on the second tier at a table and had a great view of the aquariums! Our son seemed to really like watching the fish but unfortunately it didn’t keep his interest. Our waitress came to the table right away & took our drink orders. She brought them within a few minutes & we already knew what we wanted so we ordered. Our son was getting restless & didn’t want to sit still (and he was eating the crayons they gave him to color with) so I took him to the restroom. I often do this at restaurants. I just let him run around a little bit in the restroom & then I change him. By the time we came back to the table, our waitress was bringing out our meals! (This was at 1:17pm.) I thought our food came very quickly.

Our son loved the shell light on the side of the table.

This is my current background on my laptop!

I ordered the Mahi Mahi just like I did last year, but the meal was different this time. I liked it much better last year. (sorry I cut up the fish before I took the picture, but you can still see the sauce & garnishes)

I found last year’s meal on Allears.net and it says “Grilled Mahi Mahi topped with a spicy pineapple chutney over cashew-jasmine rice finished with a coconut rum beurre blanc.” I loved that pineapple chutney sauce last year! This year’s menu says “Grilled Mahi Mahi with Ragu of Rock Shrimp served on jasmine rice topped with Hearts of Palm.” I love shrimp so I thought I’d like it. It was good & I did finish all of it, but it wasn’t nearly as good as last year’s. I love chutney sauce & their combination of pineapple & spices made it even better! I have no idea what Ragu of Rock Shrimp or Hearts of Palm are but I’m assuming it was the sauces they used. I would have much rather had the coconut rum & chutney!


My husband and son both ordered the same meals from last year as well. My DH got the Pork Tenderloin with Potatoes and substituted the Fruit Salad with broccoli. Our son got the Fresh Fish with apples and yogurt parfait. I love how it comes on a Mickey dish!

With the tip, it cost $65 and we paid OOP for this meal. I enjoyed it but not nearly as much as last year. I was also disappointed that our son didn’t eat as much as he did last year. He ate every bite last year, this year he barely ate half. We were done eating by 1:42pm.

Close-up of the menu

After that, we were planning to ride Nemo but the line was ridiculous! There were so many people around the pavilion, you couldn’t tell who was in line, who was taking pictures of their kids with the Nemo characters, and who was just walking by. It was crazy!

We walked by Innoventions again because I wanted to take our son to have his picture taken with the characters. We couldn’t believe how busy it was & when I asked the CM, they said it would definitely be over 90 minutes to wait! There was no way…not even for Mickey & Minnie! So, I tried to take pictures through the glass in between kids having their photos taken. Some of them turned out ok, some didn’t. I was disappointed because with the crowds so far, I wasn’t sure we’d have another chance to get our pictures taken here (even on a different day!)

We decided to start walking towards World Showcase, but first I wanted to stop in my favorite Epcot store…Mousegears! Of course, I spent a good amount of time staring at the Dooney bags!!! They have them in the section with the jewelry & if you want to see them, you have to ask a CM because they’re up on the shelves behind the counter. I decided that I should just walk away from them because it was depressing me too much since I knew I wasn’t getting one at this point of our trip. (Did I mention how the night before, my husband told me that he actually stood in front of the Dooneys every time he saw them in a store so I wouldn’t see them??? I was sooo mad!) Anyway, I decided to move along & look at other things & I spotted the silver charms. They have a really big selection at Mousegears, probably the biggest selection I saw at any of the giftshops. I thought it was neat that they had Mickey heads with the different countries on them. I couldn’t narrow it down to just a few to buy, so I decided not to buy any. Looking back, I wish I would’ve at least bought USA and Italy. I saw these really super cute Minnie sweatpants (they were actually capris) with a matching hoodie & top. I really wanted them, but decided not to buy them because I saw the shirt from the airport & wanted it more! When we first arrived at MCO, I noticed this coral-colored top in the gift shop right beside the Goofy statue. It had a really cute design on it with black Mickeys on it. I bought the shirt and 2 Vinylmations at Mousegears.

***NEXT UPDATE -- WORLD SHOWCASE ***

 

[Tinkermom76]

Great update Hope. The dining plan really confused me the first couple meals as well. I believe there are 2 drinks with breakfast in case you get cereal, so you can have milk for the cereal and a drink... I could be wrong

I didn't do the land pavilion either.. its a must do this trip!

 

[ChildAtHeart82]

Great update! I think the dining plan is a bit confusing for breakfast as well. I rode Living the Land a few trips ago and haven't been back the last few trips. Maybe we'll try it again this time.

 

[DevonsDisneyMom]

Hey Hope!! I am finally all caught up on your report!! Love Love Loving it!!! It is getting me super excited for my trip!!! And Mr. Luke, what can I say... He is just too stinking cute!!!

 

[reelmom]

So did the dining plan ever get easier? The reason I ask is because DH said that he wants to go back next June for Star Wars Weekends again! The same DH who said he would never go back in June again, that he wanted to take a break from Disney. The same DH who said he wanted to go to Universal so the kids could see The Wizarding World of Hary Potter. I am beginning to think he has been converted. We could go during Free Dining, but it would be for the Quick Service Dining plan. We have never used the plan and it seems confusing. I will let you know if we book.

 

[stephielela]

Yat for figuring out shutterfly! I am so excited about that, since it means life will be way easier... at least life when it comes to posting updates! Awesome update!

 

[reelmom]

Well, I did it.

I just booked a trip for June 2- June 8.

We are staying at the Family Suites at All Star Music( my Mom is going with us). We will have free quick service dining. I am so excited.

 

[photographymom517]

Great update Hope. The dining plan really confused me the first couple meals as well. I believe there are 2 drinks with breakfast in case you get cereal, so you can have milk for the cereal and a drink... I could be wrong

I didn't do the land pavilion either.. its a must do this trip!

Ooooh, that makes sense now! See, I'd never think of that because I don't eat cereal! lol

We had groceries delivered to our room (through Garden Grocer who I definitely recommend if you don't have a car to drive to Walmart or Publix yourself!) and we got the little cereal boxes, Cheerios & Apple Jacks...so we just went down to OPR's gift shop & bought a gallon of milk. That's probably another reason why I didn't figure it out. After the first time, it didn't bother me because I was just glad to get an extra drink! We'd drink one for breakfast & take the other with us in my bag. Unfortunately due to the humidity & temps, they didn't stay cold for long, but I have a solution for that for next trip! (I'm going to bring along one of those "Hot/Cold" bags like they give you at the grocery store to keep things hot or cold and put it in our stroller!)

We really liked the Land pavilion & can't wait to do Soarin next trip!

Great update! I think the dining plan is a bit confusing for breakfast as well. I rode Living the Land a few trips ago and haven't been back the last few trips. Maybe we'll try it again this time.

Glad you liked the update! It was our first time using the dining plan...I was lucky enough to have a few very nice CM's explain things to me! I'm grateful to them! We will definitely be doing the dining plan again!

Wait til the end of my report when I tell you how much we spent last trip in just 3 days and how much we saved this trip in 10 days! It still amazes me!

Hey Hope!! I am finally all caught up on your report!! Love Love Loving it!!! It is getting me super excited for my trip!!! And Mr. Luke, what can I say... He is just too stinking cute!!!

Hi Reese! Glad you are all caught up! I need to visit your report again & catch up with it (and all my other subscriptions...I'm behind as usual!)

I am soooo ready to go back to Disney! My new ticker is just a dream in my head right now...but I'm not giving up on it! I will go next year!

I'm trying to decide between MNSSHP, MVMCP & Osborne Lights, Food & Wine, Flower & Garden...oh the possibilities are endless! lol I keep telling my husband there's no reason why we shouldn't go next year...after all, how could we pass up free dining?!?

And Luke, yes he is cute!!! I suppose I am biased, being his mom and all, but I do love looking at the pictures of him at Disney! I haven't put the PhotoPass pics on my laptop yet so none of them are in my updates...but we didn't get a PhotoPass card until our day at AK so they will be coming up soon!

So did the dining plan ever get easier? The reason I ask is because DH said that he wants to go back next June for Star Wars Weekends again! The same DH who said he would never go back in June again, that he wanted to take a break from Disney. The same DH who said he wanted to go to Universal so the kids could see The Wizarding World of Hary Potter. I am beginning to think he has been converted. We could go during Free Dining, but it would be for the Quick Service Dining plan. We have never used the plan and it seems confusing. I will let you know if we book.

Well, I did it.

I just booked a trip for June 2- June 8.

We are staying at the Family Suites at All Star Music( my Mom is going with us). We will have free quick service dining. I am so excited.

Hooray for booking another trip!!!

I'm so happy for you! That is so exciting!!! I will never go back again in June but thats just me! Tons and tons of people travel during the summers to Disney & in 2 years, I won't have a choice since our son will start school. For now though, I'm staying away during summer months...too hot & crowded for me! (just my opinion though!)

YES, the dining plan definitely did get easier. It actually took less time than I thought to get used to it. And if I didn't understand something, I just went up to the CM working at the cash register & asked them! They were all very helpful and things were marked very well. For instance, at the food court at OPR, they had a little sign that marked all the snacks. I actually noticed this at the parks as well. Just look for the little dining plan sign & it will be very simple! I will go through my photos of the trip & show you what I mean. There's also a list on the Disney website that lists all the QS restaurants at each resort & park (I actually printed it & took it with us everyday of our trip so we didn't go into a restaurant, wait in line, and then find out it wasn't QS!) I'll find the link & post it for you too. Its helpful to have until you become more familiar with the restaurants & dining plan. I was clueless before our trip & now I feel like I memorized most of the restaurants! lol

I'm so glad your husband changed his mind & decided to go back!!! That's great for you!!!

Yat for figuring out shutterfly! I am so excited about that, since it means life will be way easier... at least life when it comes to posting updates! Awesome update!

Thanks for the assistance! If it weren't for you & Brooke, I wouldn't have ever contacted Nikki and wouldn't have figured it out! So I owe that to you guys!!!

I am excited too! I will be able to post alot quicker now!!! I just have to upload the pictures from my PhotoPass CD's to Shutterfly & then all of my Disney photos will be on the site! Its so simple to upload from there! When I did my last update through Photobucket, it took me about 6 hours to do the entire update...with Shutterfly it took me less than an hour & my update was longer!

 

[photographymom517]

So did the dining plan ever get easier? We could go during Free Dining, but it would be for the Quick Service Dining plan. We have never used the plan and it seems confusing. I will let you know if we book.

Well, as I said, it definitely does get easier!!! Don't let all of the information overwhelm you! I know exactly how you feel because June was the first time we ever used the Dining Plan ourselves! I'll post the site for you & some tips I learned.

1) Most items are marked at the resorts & parks. They have a little DP symbol (its purple & white and looks like a checkerboard w/4 squares...the squares say DDP and then the 4th square is a drink)

2) CM's will help you, just ask! They are very understanding if you tell them its your first time using the QSDP!

3) Here's the site!
Disney Dining Plan main site

4) Here's the QSDP for 2011 from Disney's site (helpful to print this & take it along, it has the list of restaurants on it!)
PDF File for 2011 QSDP

5) Alot of people complain about the "snack credits" but they can be used for much, much more than what it says on the above sheet (the link I put in #4). It says on there snacks include 1 milk/juice, coffee/tea, 20 oz pop or water, bag of snacks, whole piece of fruit, single-serving popcorn, or ice cream bar. I used my snack credits for lots of other things including a pastry at Starring Rolls Cafe, tons of other things at the food court (cookies, apples w/carmel sauce, brownies, yogurt parfait, etc). It just depends on where you are...when we were at the Beach Club at Hurricane Hanna's, they only had whole fruit, Mickey bars, or drinks that could be used as snack credits. Other places might have 10 choices...just depends on the place!

6) Suggestions for QS restaurants (of course only my opinion!)

MK: Cosmic Rays, Pinocchio Village Haus, Casey's (if you just want a hot dog), and Main St Bakery (for a snack!)

Epcot: Boulangerie Patisserie (in France) for a snack, Liberty Inn or Sunshine Seasons for lunch/dinner

Animal Kingdom: Restaurantosaurus (for a meal), Pizzafari (for a snack IMO), and I've heard good things about Flame Tree Barbeque but haven't eaten there myself (AK doesn't have that many choices, but we really liked Restaurantosaurus!) IMO, I'd eat breakfast & dinner at my resort & lunch at AK.

Hollywood Studios: Fairfax Fare (DEFINITELY recommend this!), ABC Commissary, Starring Rolls Cafe (for breakfast or a snack)

I really hope this helps you out! If you have other questions, please don't hesitate to ask! Its one of those things where you really don't think of questions you have until you're actually there using the dining plan, but if you think of anything prior to your trip, feel free to ask!

 

[stephielela]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

 

[photographymom517]

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Sure, not a problem! The only downfall with my suggestions is that most of them are my favorites because of dessert!!!

I'm not a big eater (I don't eat big meals especially when its so hot & humid outside) but I love dessert & I love trying new foods especially on vacation!